When the Wind Blows
by SymoneIshAmazing
Summary: "When she thought about returning to the group, she would've never thought about all the things she left behind. A best friend she got and that got her; a lover whom she never said goodbye to; a family she had known for quite a while. Of course she wasn't so naive into thinking that they would be a-okay with her returning out of the blue and all. But they'd get over it..Right?"
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer- **

**I do not own Criminal Minds because if I did, my OC would be with Chocolate Thunder and not Savannah -**

It had been three years since they last saw her. Three years since the woman whom each of the members had bonds with left them for a secret mission in Kuwait. Three years since the woman he loved walked out of his life forever…Or so he thought. It was a huge surprise to see her in the break room pouring herself a cup of coffee into her cute little penguin shaped mug. Not much had changed in her appearance other than her hair. The short, shoulder length, straight strawberry blonde was now replaced with a waist length, curly blue-black brunette. 'Turn around.. Turn around.. Please.' He thought to himself. He just had to see her face and confirm that it was her. She never even said goodbye to him; just up and left. Just as he was about to mutter her name, Garcia walked in and practically screamed it. It took the woman by surprise that she spilled a little coffee on the ground and looked up smiling.

"Jesus Garci, you scared me half to death!"

The woman spoke. It was like music to his ears hearing that silky voice again, but it sounded off. It sounded as if she had died and been brought back to life; like she went through a change. But unknown to him, she had changed. A lot. This mission in Kuwait made sure she would never be who she use to be three years ago. He watched as the team came in to see what the fuss was about and watched their expressions when they saw her. Rossi and Hotch just in the back watching, knowing already of her return, as one by one they hugged her and welcomed her back asking her how was the trip to Kuwait.. Wait what? Trip to Kuwait? How- when- when did she tell them? How had they known but not him? Did she honestly not tell him and tell the rest of them? That was a cold play. So he stood there still in complete shock with his arms crossed in front of his chest when Hotch ended the interrogation.

"You guys know that you aren't allowed to ask her about Kuwait considering it was top secret and we aren't even supposed to know so instead, let's get to work."

They all left as she was the first and they all followed. Did she not say anything to him? Again? What was he dead and only spoke to strange little boys that helped him solve the mysteries of the dead?

"You coming Morgan?" Said the voice that broke him out of his train of thought. He looked up and saw JJ speaking to him.

"Oh yeah." And followed her to the conference room. Garcia took her place in front of the room and began debriefing the team.

"Firstly I would like to say we are all soooo happy Vex is back! Welcome back Fae Montiago LaVexen!" Everyone clapped and Vex just gave Garcia a side-ways smile as she went back to business. "Second, the case. Thirty-five year old Alaska Young was a marine found dead in his car as if he had been in an accident. Later found out it was staged in Washington DC. Twenty-eight year old Anna Fitzgerald found in the locker room of a base gym, hunched over a vanity mirror with missing organs and Cato Merrick was just 20 years old found by his roommate in the barracks, an arrow in his throat." The first to make a comment on this was Vex.

"This case is really weird... Were they all marines?"

"Oh god how I've really missed hearing your interrupted comments. I wasn't finished deary but I still love you regardless. Each one of the victims were branded with different symbols. Alaska with the chinese symbols I have yet decode, Anna the Japanese symbols I have yet to decode, and Cato a weird symbol of shovel, hammer, a stone block, and two lightning bolts all in a circle. They will be decoded very soon and sent to your phones. However, chloroform was found in their systems so they were most likely knocked out then killed."

"Now, considering these were marines, we will be working alongside an NCIS team in Washington D.C. It's only about an hour away so we will be driving down there. We leave in 20 minutes."

Hotch said as the team gathered their things and left the room. Vex headed to where her desk sat, unused for three years and smiled as she saw no one had touched a thing, which was surprising, when she was stopped by Reid.

"So you know how you never really said goodbye and instead video chatted me?" He asked her.

"Yep."

"I'm taking that as a you being terrified of saying goodbye to me in person and that you were gonna cry because I mean a lot to you." Did he really just-

"Reid, you have GOT to stop over analyzing stuff. Goodness. But, you are right. You know how I hate crying." Morgan overheard this and started remembering the last time she really cried.

It was raining and Vex had just learned the little girl she tried to protect died in the hospital with a gunshot wound. She was only eight years old and sacrificed herself to save Fae. When asked why she did it, she replied by saying, "I was ready to die before you saved me and because you saved me, I could save you." It broke her heart and Morgan comforted her the days Hotch had given her off, saying she'd be okay. She never really was herself after that but she was a tough girl and she could sometimes hide that sort of stuff. His memory was shattered much like his thoughts were earlier by Garcia.

"Yees

h Chocolate thunder can she have her face back?" She asked him .It wasn't until she mentioned it that he realized he was, in fact, staring.

"I can't help it. I never thought she'd come back. I thought.." His voice trailed off.

"We all thought that. But here she is. She made us a promise and she kept it."

That was right. She did make a promise. That no matter what ever happened to her, she would always find a way back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright guys, here Chapter two! Don't forget to Read, Review, and Follow for Notifs on new Chapters. Enjoy~**

About two hours had passed before the team had reached the NCIS headquarters and four other agents were waiting for them. One looked a little older than the rest with gray hair and a scowl as he hit a younger looking one upside the head. The six BAU agents looked at each other slightly confused. The older one introduced himself first and then his team as he shook Hotch's hand.

"I'm Agent Gibbs, Special Agents David, DiNozzo, and McGee." He pointed to the younger one that he smacked as DiNozzo, the female David, and the nervous one McGee. It was then Hotch's turn to introduce his team.

"Special Agents Morgan, Vex, JJ, Rossi, Prentiss, Dr. Spencer Reid and I'm Hotchner. Really looking forward to working with you." They each shook hands quickly but DiNozzo lingered with Vex's hand and she had to politely pull away. She hoped no one saw his weird little affection towards her as they were lead to yet another conference room where they were debriefed on absolutely nothing new.

"We were on our way out to the crime scenes." Mentioned DiNozzo with his hands in his pockets.

"You won't mind us tagging along right?" JJ asked him. He just slightly shrugged his shoulders.

"Not much of a choice right?" He didn't mean for it to sound snarky, it just came out that way. JJ just turned on her heels and walked back towards her group.

"Yeesh!" She silently whispered.

"How do you want to set this up boss?" Morgan asked Hotch, still slightly bothered at that lingering handshake Vex received earlier.

"Rossi and I will head over to the Young crime scene. Vex, you and Morgan go to the gym and Reid and Prentiss go to the barracks. See if you guys can find anything okay?"

"That's our job isn't Hotch?" Vex always said this to him to reassure him they were ahead of the game and refused to fail. She smiled at him as the other team came over.

"I've instructed McGee to go to the the gym, DiNozzo the barracks, and I'm hitting up the house. Agent Ziva will be here on standby." Morgan shifted nervously from one foot to the other. Working with Vex again already? This should be very interesting. At least this other kid would be there to monitor. As the teams loaded up into the cars, Vex insisted on driving. Morgan sat in the back and McGee rode shot-gun. Morgan trying to avoid and not speak to her was quite amusing. She wasn't about to play his little game though. But it seemed like everyone was interrupting people today because just as she was about to speak, McGee piped up.

"Profilers huh? Are you-are you really that good?" He asked slightly stuttering. Maybe it was just because he didn't want to offend them but he was really nervous.

"The best team. I mean, we all have already profiled your team so we can find ways to help each other and not get in eachothers way." This took the agent by surprise as he had no clue how fast they worked.

"Really? Well what uh.. What about me?"

"You use to be inexperienced yet now all of a sudden, you have enough experience for your boss to be sending you out in the field instead of uh… Agent… David, who has way more experience than you. Feeling there's something more down there. You use to be bullied because of your stutter which I suspect is because you never mean harm in any of your words even if they may sound like that, like you did a few minutes ago. Kind of a priss when it comes to defending yourself too." Neither Morgan nor McGee could believe what this girl just said. So brutally honest.

"Wait… A priss?" That was the only thing he heard out of her entire profiling of him. Morgan just sat in the back and chuckled.

"She got you man. Get use to it while we're here." That was the most she had heard him say all day. Surprising.

Soon they arrived at the gym and flashed their badges to whoever was in charge. Morgan then introduced them as the other two agents looked around, McGee still thinking about the 'priss' thing.

"She was found in there. We, of course, aren't allowed in but we sent some female cops in."

"Wait.. The facility wasn't shut down? I mean it's a federal investigation." Asked McGee.

"Nope. There's some requirements some of the soldiers have to meet.. Some of the personnel has to lose weight before they ship out. Nothing can get in the way of this, but we have had MP's guarding around the area." Vex bit her tongue because what she wanted to say would be nothing but conflict and she couldn't have that just yet, so she let him lead her to the female locker room.

"McGee you wait out here okay? Morgan, go look at the security footage to see if anything looks out of place." She went in and came back out, briefly.

"Actually, take McGee with you. He looks like he's about to wet himself." Morgan smirked at McGee's bewildered face and nodded while Vex checked out the locker room.

As Vex walked in, she took in her surroundings, noticing every little detail from how the yellow lockers were placed to the orange tiles on the walls. She walked towards the yellow police tape that marked off the rest of the crime scene. There was a female military officer standing right outside of it. The name on her badge read, "Santiago" so she assumed that was her name. Santiago saluted her and Vex saluted her back.

"Petty Officer, thanks for watching over the crime scene." She said. Santiago smiled and nodded her head.

"Yeah no problem. You're one of the BAU Profilers right?"

"Yes ma'am I am. I'm Special Agent LaVexen but you can call me Vex." The Petty Officer nodded her head as Vex began to examine the area. Vex also took this time to get to know the girl, for the time being.

""You know the victim?" It took her a minute to answer.. As if she were hiding something.

"No. I mean I had seen her around but never talked ya know? She looked nice and from what I've heard, she liked to party."

"Yeah I'll say." She looked behind the mirror and back at the nervous looking girl.

"Hey, anyone look behind here yet?"

"Uh I honestly don't know ma'am. I was just on duty. No ones been here except me anyway."

Looking back behind the mirror, she took her flashlight to see better but it didn't work, so instead she pushed the mirror. Behind it, it seemed like a quote was written in something read. It said, "You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not." Looking back at Petty Officer, she pointed.

"Was this here when everything was examined?" She asked taking a picture.

"Uh I-I don't know. I told you, I was just placd on duty. You'll have to ask the person before me."

"You know who that is?"

"No ma'am. Sorry." Vex thanked her for her time and told her to stick around, feeling that there was something she hadn't told her. That quote was in the back of her mind and she couldn't remember where she had heard it before. It was a coincidence that Morgan and McGee were done. Morgan was talking to another officer so she walked up to McGee.

"Find anything?" She asked pulling out her phone, about to show him her findings.

"Ready for this? Tapes were wiped. Twice too because Anna was found two days ago. Well, there is data wiped from her death and last night."

"That would mean our unsub decided to come back but had to wipe the cameras again. And I think I know what he came back for." She should him the quote and he scrunched up his face, re-reading.

"You know what it is?" He asked. While putting her phone away, she shook her head. Now she was confused. Morgan came over to their little group and asked the same question to which Vex gave the same reply. He sighed and they decided to head back to NCIS HQ to regroup their findings. Vex drove again and handed Morgan her phone to look at the picture.

"Does that ring any bells Der?" Hearing her call him Der sort of sent a chill down his spine. She was alway coming up with nicknames to help her remember peoples names yet Der had always stuck. It made him stammer over his words as he returned her phone.

"Uh n-no. It doesn't. Where'd you find it?"

"Behind the vanity mirror. Who ever did it came back last night to write this other wise the investigation team would've seen it. We'll show the group and see if anyone else found something that could help."

"What could this say about our unsub?" He asked, forgetful McGee was in the car. The only reason he remembered was because McGee was still in front and because he spoke up.

"Maybe he's risky. Obviously smart since he was able to hack into the cameras and either shut them off or tamper with them." Vex looked at Morgan through the mirror and raised her eyebrows.

"Well then, that's true but why take the risk? You've already killed the girl, why come back to write a message? Why not write the message before we came, after the murder?" She asked McGee. It seemed like the NCIS Agent was trying to join in on the profiling and Vex nor Morgan minded one bit. McGee took a minute before responding, so Morgan did it for him.

"He's playing a game. Thinking he can control the crime scene and what we find and when we find it." Vex chuckled to herself and kept driving.

"Coffee anyone?"

* * *

><p>Arriving back at HQ, the three stepped out with their coffee. Morgan abruptly grabbed Vex's hand just as another truck pulled up. He let go, but that didn't rid Vex of a scowl on her face. 'I guess he was about to say something.' She thought. 'But the truck stopped him.' Out came DiNozzo, Reid and Prentiss, strutting their way.<p>

"I'm just saying, it doesn't make sense. 'You think you want to die, but in reality you just want to be saved'? I mean, according to the vics file, makes no sense."

DiNozzo commented. When he looked up and saw Fae he smiled.

"Agents, it's a surprise we arrived nearly at the same time. Any news?" Morgan nodded his head but Fae answered.

"Yeah a quote. We'll talk about it inside when the rest of the team gets here. Obviously they would want to know about this as well." Everyone nodded in agreement as they walked inside. When they got there, they were informed by a call from Hotch that it would be a while before they returned so they should get acquainted with one another or grab lunch. McGee and Prentiss decided to research some more while Fae, DiNozzo, Morgan and David went to get everyone some lunch. Chinese would be okay. David drove and Fae sat in the front with while the guys were in the back.

"So, what do you guys think about this case?"

"Well, it certainly is different from what we are use to. Mostly because you guys are here. They say you're the best profilers. That true?" David asked. Fae took note of her accent; one she knew too well in her line of work.

"Wouldn't say we were the best. More we have an amazing combination of people in one group." Morgan protested. Fae had to counter his comment.

"Yeah you see, this guy is muscle, tackling people, the one to play bad cops for us. Make no mistake, however, cause he can get lots out of people with his intimidating set of eyebrows." This earned a chuckle from Morgan.

"Reid is our youngster. He's very smart and notices things and sees things differently than the rest of us do. Prentiss is good with people, getting information out of people using good cop. Kind of Der's alter ego, if you will. JJ is our media/child expert. Thanks to her, we can get the type of reaction from unsubs we need. Hotch and Rossi hold the team together, just like they hold each other together. Without them, this team couldn't make it. Then there's our tech goddess Garcia. She's back at Quantico but without her, we wouldn't be able to know 3/4th about our unsub." She finished. It didn't occur to her that she didn't mention herself. until DiNozzo asked.

"Me? Nothing special. I guess for moral support."

"You sell yourself short. This one has a photographic memory that helps Reid out with some of his findings. If Reid doesn't know it, guarantee she does." It kind of took her by surprise that he would still talk good natured about her, even though she left without saying anything to him. It was silent after that until Morgan broke it by asking about them.

"I don't know really. I mea Abby is like your Garcia. Working faster than lightning to get what we need. Ducky, our doctor, lets us know how the victim died, giving us information on what we need to look out for. Gibbs holds the team together, and the rest of us? Well, were like the kids who just love figuring out the puzzle." DiNozzo replied. The teams weren't all that different from each other like the two BAU agents thought. The both had people that went perfect with other people. They were both like pieces of a puzzle that put together the perfect team. The perfect family.


End file.
